Cool metal, heated skin
by Loveforthestory
Summary: A story about cool metal and heated skin. About a connection and internal struggles, passion and unexpected comfort. Set in season two. With a hint of Charloe.


He tries to keep back his irritation and frustration with the help of the bottle in his hand. Connor drinks while he sits in front of the fire that has kept him company for the past hour. Scanlon walks through their camp as Connor follows him with his eyes. Another wave of irritation hits him. Scanlon looks at him with a look of dismissal that makes Connor want to grab the disrespectful asshole by his throat.

When Scanlon turns his back to him, Connor huffs with anger that is rising and spreading through his chest.

Connor had listened to his dad and Miles, going over plans and strategies for their attack on a patriot camp ten miles south west of their current location. Both men were deep in conversation as they seemed to reason from almost one and the same mind when it came to their decisions and strategy.

His dad and Miles are _still_ discussing the right approach for another attack, that pretty much involves all kinds of crazy plans. Connor had enough and after cleaning his gun and finding a bottle of booze, he had found his spot near the fire. When he puts the bottle to his lips he watches them.

Charlie is standing close to the both of them. Her slender and smaller figure filled with her never changing stubborn will to fight, in between two tall wide shouldered battle hardened men. Her arms are crossed before her chest. Her silhouette against the darkness of the night and another fire is joining the contours of two generals who are fighting together again.

Connor slowly shakes his head. The three of them seriously thinking they could pull this off, irritates him. The certainty in the way his dad's hand rests on the hilt of his sword and the determination in Miles' eyes and even Charlie joining and following them, irritates him even more.

His eyes move from Miles to his dad. He watches Charlie. And then his eyes move across camp to the psycho blonde , who is Miles' and Charlie's nonstop second shadow. He watches them and feels all the unsaid things in this little group that are swirling right under the surface.

Dark deep eyes invade his frustrated thoughts. Followed by other images. Brown hair that holds the colours of a deep fire close to midnight when the sun hits her hair the right way when she walks in front of him. Slender fingers that are deadly when they are wrapped around her gun. Her mind creating explosions that vibrate through the landscape in the middle of one of their fights. A smile she rarely shows. _Nora Clayton_.

He remembers the first time he saw her. She had been walking into their camp with that strong rhythm that is so her in her boots. Surrounded by a small group, _her group and Duncan's_ , of other men and woman that are fighting this fight with them. But he had only eyes for her.

The moment she had introduced herself with a firm voice and determined eyes, was the moment he had known for sure. This woman, she is strength. She is survival and endless fight, deadly and absolutely beautiful.

He hears the sound of boots behind him and when looks up, he meets her deep eyes as she joins him on his log near the fire without asking.

'So, ready for tomorrow?' Nora asks. She looks at Miles, Charlie and Monroe before she meets his eyes briefly.

Connor feels the intensity of her eyes for only a short period of time but they still demand so much of him with the strong stare her eyes hold.

He shakes his head. 'You people are nuts.' Connor grumbles with a broody edge in his deep eyes.

'That's very bitter of you.' Nora comments. She takes the bottle of whiskey from Connor and makes sure that the next sip from the bottle is hers.

The mocking strength in her voice gives him no other choice but to look at her and he can see some of that mockery he just heard in her voice, reflected in her eyes. She is new strength. She is not like the woman he met at home. Or whatever that home was, now shot to hell somewhere in the past and across the border. _Another life he won't return to._

Nora feels the sting of the booze warming her system. She looks at the man standing not that far away from her _. Broad shoulders. Dark hair_. She follows the lines of his neck. Her eyes are now resting on the necklace around his neck. The necklace he still wears.

She can see the general. But most of all she seems to see the man who has found a way back into her life. Together with the woman standing right next to him. And now they are sharing their days fighting again when the past is so clear she can almost touch it. Taste it. Taste _him._

But he is not the same. She is not the same. _Not anymore_. So much of what was, still there. But Nora knows it is not enough as a painful truth in her heart. The intensity of a set of blue cold eyes from that are reaching her from another corner of their camp creeping under her skin, without even looking at the other woman, tells her it is not enough.

She understands Connor's irritation that she finds in his looks and words every single day. He has to share Monroe with Miles. She turns her head towards Rachel and stares at her for just a couple of seconds. _Sharing._ _She knows the feeling._

'They know what they are doing.' Nora nods to Miles and Bass, forcing herself to think about fights and what is ahead of them.

Her eyes linger on Miles a bit longer before she watches the flames of the fire again. Connor can see the change in her face. It is a small change, but he has seen it. There is silence between them as Nora gives him the bottle and Connor thinks about her words and he can only see truth in her eyes.

She stays where she is, right next to him, sharing that bottle of whiskey.

'You are enjoying that whiskey.' There is a lighter rasp appearing in his voice. His eyes now filling with more than just brooding frustration.

It yanks her away from another man, from things she feels running through her. Coming from a past that is so sharp, that she is sure it could still cut her and make her bleed.

'Well, I am not exactly the wine type of girl.' Nora almost snaps. But she can't control the small smile that forms around her full lips that his eyes and the change in them steal from her lips. And there is that small part in her that wonders _, again_ , why she is reacting to him they way she is now.

Connor's voice holds the warmth of the fire reflected in her deep eyes when he grins at her. 'No, you are definitely not.'

* * *

It is three hours before sunrise when Nora pushes herself up from her place against an old tree. She checks the line of trees that surrounds their current safe house and camp. She watches how Charlie walks down the steps of the small porch of their safe house, ready to take second watch.

'Hey,' Charlie says softly when she reaches Nora. Her voice is hoarse with only the couple of hours of sleep she allowed herself tonight. Her knife is resting against her hip.

'Hey yourself.' Nora nods to her when she stretches the slow fatigue out of her sore muscles. The days on the road are hard. The wait is even harder when the hours of the night pass slowly.

There is something in Charlie's eyes that makes it impossible to ignore what is going on inside of them. Nora has been trying to talk to her, but she knows how fights and war can hide so much of you used to be. Of who you could be. A basic need to make it through their lives they are all trying to survive since the blackout filling everything and all of them now.

It became a new dark normal for all of them. Slowly evolving in a world after a blackout. Although Nora realizes that for Charlie, this has always been her normal, remembering hardly anything else from what used to be. This _is_ her normal. Her world, her truth. She knows how much it rips Miles apart. She knows Charlie does not even know how much. But she knows Miles. She can see it in his eyes.

'You all right?' Nora tries. Her leather jacket brushes hers when Charlie passes her.

'Sure.' Charlie nods before she checks her gun. She meets Nora's eyes with a small smile that does not fool Nora, a fast ghost in the night falling over her face.

Nora looks at her with concern in her eyes, not convinced because Charlie's eyes give a completely different answer. This girl is tough. But Rachel has been Rachel and Miles is losing himself in whiskey and their fight. And Monroe. She has seen the way Charlie is silently giving him a chance. She can see the battle in Charlie.

And how much Charlie keeps everyone at a distance, Nora's knows the depth of her heart. She knows Matheson' stubbornness. She also knows what lies behind that stubbornness. She knows she can't reach her now, but she is still there for her. Over and over again, every damn day. So she let's Charlie do what she came here to do. Which is second watch while she is going to grab some sleep.

When she walks through the hallway and into her room, he is there. Waiting. Tall in the shadows with only a small light on the table against the left wall breaking the darkness of the hours before dawn.

There is a slow burning and almost proud arrogance lingering in his eyes when he looks at her that pisses her of.

'Sorry...did not mean to scare you...' Connor grins. He is slowly moving his eyes over her breasts and hips before he meets her eyes again. He knows he is taking a risk. But after all those weeks on the road with her, he is willing, _and going,_ to take that risk. She's worth it.

'You are an asshole, you know that right?' Nora says, the irritation that should be there not willing to show up in her voice. She closes the door behind her and meets him in the middle of the room.

Connor does not move when she close the distance between them. She is not sure if she is going to hurt him or give in to something she has been wanting to try for a while now. Making sure the last hours before dawn are going to count.

She steps even closer, brushing his jeans with her belly. A hint of arrogance in his eyes really makes her want to go for the first option. But then, that arrogance softens and her anger melts right into the embrace of his warm breath and his shoulders close to her body in the darkness of the shadows of the night.

'Nora..' her name is soft roughness coming from him as she still manages to surprise him as she takes control over a situation he felt in control of only three seconds ago, '..what are you...'

She steps closer to him. 'Shhh... don't talk. Don't want to talk...'

He looks at her, like he is trying to decide something. He reaches out for her. His fingers finally brush the gentle but strong lines of her cheek.

He plays with her hair as his knuckles are brushing the soft lines of her face. Her deep dark hair is now flowing through his fingers right before he leans in to kiss her. His mouth is determined and wet warmth. Nora feels Connor pulsate through her body.

Connor mutters and groans something at the same time when he feels the softness of her full lips and her hips against his groin. Then he decides he needs to tastes her as he slowly lowers his head, demanding more from her body. He licks her jaw line and tastes her sweat. He gently bites her neck. Nora breathes out, and without being able to stop herself, her breath changes into a soft moan.

She can feel his grin against her neck when he wraps his hand around her upper arm. Her belly moves against the rough fabric of his black jeans and she feels the hard potential hidden under the fabric of his pants.

Connor feels the strength of Nora throbbing in his cock. He licks her neck and moves his lips over her skin, taking in her breathing that speeds up every time he claims more from her neck.

'You like that...' his voice is lower now. Nora is not sure if it is a question or a statement.

He keeps his mouth on her neck, when he is walking her to the bed in the corner of the room. When he pushes her softly where he wants to have her, which is on the bed behind her, she has to close her eyes, when his warm breath mixes with the wet of his mouth on the sensitive skin of her neck.

She feels the heavy weight of his body against her when he moves to lay beside her. She is on her side now as Connor pulls her closer to him. She moves her leg between his longer muscled legs. She tastes him, in the shadow and with him in one simple room with slow sensual battles of their tongues.

Connor explores her body, pulling her closer. His hand strokes her belly and breasts under her shirt. He opens her pants and pushes them softly over smooth thighs. His fingers play with soft moist curls that are glistening when the light of the candles finds her body.

Nora feels his fingers at work when they glide her panties over her legs, his fingers brushing against the inside of her thighs. And for one moment, thoughts of war and loss _and_ her past, a part of that past in a room at the end of hallway in this house, shut up for one moment.

She moves into the nook of his body with Connor on his side next to her. She takes off his shirt, demanding him to let her taste his skin and feel it against her cheek and full lips. His hand never stops slowly brushing moist curls and sensitive swollen skin between her toned thighs.

The cool metal of his ring touches her hot clit. His dark curls brush her neck as the palm of her hands are around his head. She wants to move her hand through his dark curls. She wants to feel them between her fingers and create some kind of leverage to brace herself from the strong building release and finding out she really wants to taste and feel him. But Connor stops her as he moves his hand around her wrist and pushes it back into the mattress.

When he adds more pressure to that one spot inside of her where she craves to feel his fingers, she lets out another deep moan against his bare shoulder. Her low moan gets trapped between her mouth and his skin.

Connor looks at her, _really looks at her,_ the moment he lets his finger slip inside of her. He feels the wet resistance of the woman in his arms around his fingers. He slowly adds another finger as Nora lets out another moan.

His thumb ads more pressure to her clit as he finds a rhythm that makes her even wetter.

'Come for me Nora..' Connor breathes against her neck. His words, somewhere between a question and a low burning demand, are eliciting another moan from her.

Her soft breasts hidden under her shirt touch the strong lines of his chest. Nora tilts her thighs. His arm is mostly hidden between her legs now. She can feel his muscles at work between her thighs as his fingers move inside of her. The dark hairs on his arm play with the skin of her thighs.

After she comes, and when she can feel the mattress under her back and legs again she meets his eyes. His face. _Dark curls and deep eyes_. She finds something in him she lost a long time ago. _He has not seen enough._ It pulsates through her with the last waves of her orgasm.

She responds to something in his eyes. She won't allow it to happen. So she pushes him of her and forces him into the mattress as she decides where her next orgasm will come from.

Connor is unable to ignore the change in her eyes. He can only look at her and something inside of him responds to what happens in her eyes. He wants to say something but she shuts him up with her strong legs around his hard thighs.

She feels how much he wants her between her thighs. He is hard and wide and so much when she rubs her clit over his cock, still hidden as a wide bulge under his jeans. He can't talk. It is going to be too personal. This cannot become something personal. Something intimate. They are still fighting. She won't risk having to worry about somebody else who could die right in front of her eyes when they are fighting like hell. Even when she is getting lost in deep eyes and hard thighs under her she won't allow herself to forget that.

When her fingers open his belt and work on the button of his pants and she finally moves over his cock, she feels the satisfying feel of being filled up by something else other than war. His eyes are on her and for a moment she feels like she could drown in those eyes, in the depth of his eyes. She can't. So she closes hers as she starts moving her hips and feels him. Giving into lust and him with a soft moan before her hips choose a rhythm she needs.

* * *

They all make it out. _Barely_. One day and one victory later and they have all found their way back to their camp. They are exhausted and some of them are hurt, but they made it.

They lost two men from Duncan's camp. But at the end of the battle he got to walk away with his dad's arm around his shoulders. Charlie had been next to Miles who was right behind him and his dad. Nora had been close, close enough to lock eyes with her for a short moment while Scanlon had been bitching about the loss of his men.

She had found his earlier, in battle between shots and deadly gunfire. Her eyes had been filled with the edge of survival and fight. And when she was huddled behind some old rusty car, busy reloading her weapon, her eyes had found his. Urging him to keep going. Everything this battle meant to her as well somewhere in her eyes.

Dawn is almost there. His dad is sharing a bottle of whiskey in front of a fire with Charlie. There is shared silence lingering heavy between them. They just sit. Drink. Shoulder to shoulder.

Connor turns his head. He watches how Miles is talking to Rachel. She had refused to be a part of their attack. There is harsh loathing and rage in her eyes and he can see something heavy in Miles' shoulders and a hint of doubt in his eyes.

Connor can see the heavy look in his dad's shoulders when he looks at Miles before he turns his eyes back to the fire with something broody, dark and exhausted in his eyes. He cans see the heavy sigh in Charlie's shoulders when she does not even bother looking at Rachel and Miles.

And then he sees _her._ Walking slowly and almost invisibly out of camp and away from their safe house as she disappears into the line of trees. The woman he had in his arms last night. The woman that came in his arms, _all deep eyes, and soft skin_ and the woman who had him surrender to the pace of her hips wrapped around his cock deep inside of her when she had let all the other bullshit fade in the middle of their fuck.

There is tension in her shoulders that makes him leave his spot near the fire and follow her.

Nora does not look back as she lets the darkness and the shadows of the forest slowly engulf her. She is trembling. The attack and the raid of the camp has been a success. But every time it is there. The fear of having to watch the people that matter to her die in that battle with her, before she does.

She can keep it out, that fear. Most of the time. Focussing on what has to be done protects her from everything her heart is screaming at her in battle.

But not today, not this night. Her past and her fears and everything she wants to keep out find her under the solitude of the leaves of the trees, high above her. The night sky only filled with a couple of stars and chilling temperatures.

She is fighting to regain control, and she cannot do that in front of Charlie. She has seen enough. She can't do it in front of Miles. She would not be able to meet his eyes.

Connor takes large steps, his boots are hitting the forest ground. He sees her, close to a tree and so alone. It fills his next breath. _She_ fills his next breath. He watches the tremble in her fingers he normally never sees, the shock and loneliness in her deep eyes. He finds some of his own despair and doubt in her.

Nora hears him before she sees him. _Don't._

 _Don't look._

 _Don't ask._

 _Don't see me._

She swallows the pleas of those thoughts away. It does not work. She tastes salt in the back of her throat. He is there anyway. He doesn't ask. He _does_ see her.

And instead of arrogance or that grin or bitter rage she gets another part of him. Connor pulls her against his chest. His arm tall and somehow never ending wrapped around her shoulder.

Nora feels the metal of his ring somewhere in her hair. It softly brushes the skin of her neck. She takes in his scent, so personal and so much as she feels the wideness of comfort and a steady chest against her temple.

Connor's hands stay high on her back. Grounding her as he stands there with her in a silent forest after another battle. A new one already somewhere on the horizon.

She gives in. She stands still with him for one moment. _One moment_ , she tells herself. Connor holds her, the rhythm of the rising of his chest with each and every of his breaths somehow comforting her. Connor feels her melt into his arms and for one fucking second he realizes he means something to someone. It silences a bitter part in his heart and wakens up another that has been asleep for so long from the moment he had walked through the gates of drug lord's compound many years ago. So he offers her the one thing he can. A part of him. Time. His arms around her.

The golden light of the fires from their camp in the distance softly reflecting in the metal of his ring.

* * *

 **Author's Note** **Dear Romeo, happy birthday! I really enjoyed exploring these characters . This new angle was a fresh and great challenge and I loved writing Nora in season two. Connor's ring always intrigued me on the show and it was the inspiration and spark for this story. This story is about a connection between two people in the middle of war and personal struggles. A loneliness and struggle both Nora and Connor are going through at this point in the story. Connor is struggling because he has met his father, but he is also confronted with that strong bond between Bass and Miles. And then, there is Nora. One person is connecting in this story: Miles. And in the middle of all that, Connor and Nora met in this story. I absolutely loved working on this one shot. Wishing you a great day Romeo, happy birthday again and I wish you stories and inspiration! And thank you to Threemagpies for her support while I was working on this piece. Love from Love**


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